Judge orders Microsoft to stop selling MS Word Within 60 Days

[Darth Sushi]

Judge orders Microsoft to stop selling MS Word Within 60 Days
by Steven Musil, August 11, 2009 11:30 PM PDT

" A judge on Tuesday ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word, one of its premier products, in its current form due to patent infringement.

Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML," according to a statement released by attorneys for the plantiff, i4i.

Microsoft said it was disappointed in the ruling and that it would appeal the verdict.

"We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid," Microsoft spokesperson Kevin Kutz said in a statement.

Toronto-based i4i sued Microsoft in March 2007 alleging that the Redmond,Wash.-based software giant violated its 1998 patent (No. 5,787,449) for a document system that eliminated the need for manually embedded formatting codes.

XML--an integral feature in Microsoft Word--is considered a "page description language," with one of its key qualities being that it is readable by people, not just machines. Unlike HTML, which has predefined tags, XML allows developers and users to define their own tags for data, such as price and product.

In May, a federal jury in Tyler, Texas, ruled that the custom XML tagging features of Word 2003 and Word 2007 infringed on i4i's patent and ordered Microsoft to pay $200 million in the case.

In Tuesday's ruling, Microsoft was also ordered to pay an additional $40 million for willful infringement, as well as $37 million in prejudgment interest. The order requires Microsoft to comply with the injunction within 60 days and forbids Microsoft from testing, demonstrating, or marketing Word products containing the contested XML feature.

However, it's unlikely Microsoft will take one of its biggest money-maker off the market. The injunction gives Redmond two months to pursue an appeal, craft a settlement, or implement a technical workaround that removes the technology found to be infringing. "

Source: http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-1...ecoustics-cnet

[Dean141]

People really are bored arnt they...

[megabyteme]

Anytime a judgment rules against the mighty M$, it is a big deal. They have a history of trampling other smaller companies. This is actually good news. Might actually allow some other competitors to have some strength. At least this one will- it now has $200M to invest into R&D.

[Jerusalem]

Holy ****! This is actually true?! D:

This is hilarious, I bet the OpenOffice employees are laughing their asses off right now.

[Rart]

Wow... MS hit big. This is bound to make some blood boil at MS.

[iLOVENZB]

This is hilarious, I bet the OpenOffice employees are laughing their asses off right now.

OO was always an excellent alternative, but sadly MS Office is standard in the workplace.

[peat moss]

Found this quote about the judge interesting .

" As an aside, a politically connected friend in Texas, describes the judge on the case as one of the few actually competent to hear it.

"Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for East Texas was appointed by (George W. Bush) because of his far, far right-wing views," she wrote. "But, interestingly enough, he’s also the only sitting federal judge who has a master’s degree in computer science and who worked as a programmer before attending law school and becoming a civil (patent & IP) attorney."

At one level, Judge Davis is totally competent, but at another his experience may actually make it more likely that he would rule far enough outside the mainstream that Microsoft could win on appeal.


Link : http://www.pcworld.com/article/17013...urt_Users.html

[unclemilty74]

Really? Do any of you actually think $200m is going to hurt M$? Come on, this is their history of doing business... violate agreements and when you get caught, pay to settle = maintain market share = money well spent.

[KushBlow]

Question is...why?

[Ronnie Coleman]

Nothing can stop Microsoft now from making money out of 3rd grade products®. Even if it is illegal or from stolen ideas. It's too late now.

P.S. Text in bold is quote of Steve Jobs.